islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic Jihad(1761), some 22,000 women and children of the slain Maratha soldiers were driven away as slaves. 740 Asalready cited, the last independent Muslim ruler, Tipu Sultan, had enslaved some 7,000 people in Travancore.They were driven away and forcibly converted to Islam. 741 Enslavement of the infidels in India went on aslong as Muslims were ruling with authority. The consolidation of power by the British mercenaries in thenineteenth century eventually ended enslavement in India. Even during the Partition (1947), Muslimskidnapped tens of thousands of Hindu and Sikh women and married them to Muslims: a form of age-oldenslavement (discussed already). In November 1947, as already noted, Muslim Pathan raiders carried awayHindu and Sikh girls from Kashmir and sold in the markets of Jhelum (in Pakistan). 742These are accounts of enslavement by Muslim invaders and rulers mainly in Northern India.Enslavement was going on in earnest in far-off provinces across India, including Gujarat, Malwa, Jaunpur,Khandesh, Bengal and the Deccan, which were either under the control of Delhi or were independent Muslimsultanates. The records of enslavement in those regions were not always recorded systematically.ENSLAVEMENT BY MUSLIMS ELSEWHEREMuslim invaders and rulers engaged in enslaving the vanquished infidels in large numbers in their raids andwars everywhere. Prophet Muhammad’s inauguration of wholesale enslavement of non-Muslims for sellingthem or engaging in household work and concubinage was progressively expanded after his death as theMuslim power progressively increased through the reigns of the Rightly Guided Caliphs (632–60), theUmayyads (661–750) and the Abbasids (751–1250).When Muslim General Amr, directed by Caliph Omar, conquered Tripoli in 643, he took away thewomen and children from both the Jews and Christians. Caliph Othman, records ninth-century historian AbuKhalif al-Bhuturi, imposed a treaty on the Nubia (Sudan) in 652, requiring its rulers to send an annual tributeof slaves—360 for the caliph and forty for the Egyptian governor, 743 which continued until 1276. Similartreaties were concluded during the Umayyad and Abbasid rules with the towns of Transoxiana, Sijistan,Armenia and Fezzan (modern Northwest Africa), who had to send a stipulated annual tribute of slaves of bothsexes. 744 During the Umayyad rule, Musa bin Nusair, an illustrious Yemeni General, was made governor ofNorth Africa (Ifrikiya, 698–712) to put down a renewed Berber rebellion and to spread the domain of Islam.Musa put down the revolts and enslaved 300,000 infidels. The Caliph’s one-fifth share, numbering 60,000,was sold into slavery and the proceeds were deposited into the caliphal treasury. Musa engaged 30,000 of thecaptives into military service. 745In his four-year campaign in Spain (711–15), Musa had captured 30,000 virgins from the families ofGothic nobility alone. 746 This excludes the enslaved women from other backgrounds, and of course, thechildren. In the sack of Ephesus in 781, 7,000 Greeks were driven away as slaves. In the capture of Amoriumin 838, slaves were so numerous that Caliph al-Mutasim ordered them to be auctioned in batches of five and740. Ibid, p. 155741. Hasan M (1971) The History of Tipu Sultan, Aakar Books, Delhi, p. 362–63742. Talib, SGS (1991), Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab 1947, Voice of India, New Delhi, p.201743. Vantini G (1981) Christianity in the Sudan, EMI, Bologna, p. 65–67744. Ibn Warraq, p. 231745. Umayyad Conquest of North Africa, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_conquest_of_North_Africa746. Lal (1999), p103; Hitti (1961), p. 229-30217